Juan Pablo Di Pace’s Dancing With the Stars woes aren’t over yet. Months after the frontrunner was shockingly eliminated in the dance competition’s semi-finals, the Fuller House actor announced he was forced to drop out of the DWTS: Live tour due to an abdominal injury.
He took to Instagram late Monday night to make the announcement, telling fans he wanted them to hear it first from him.
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“Hello Dancing With the Stars fans. I wanted to update you on my situation,” Di Pace began, adding that he has gotten opinions from several different doctors about an issue plaguing his stomach. “I’ve had abdominal pain since the beginning of the year and I’ve seen eight different doctors in the last week. The diagnosis is that there’s an issue with my stomach and the fascia of my abdominals. I am told that I can’t dance. And I can’t travel and move too much, I just need to rest.”
Fascia is a band of connective tissue beneath the skin that attaches, stabilizes and separates muscles and internal organs.
Di Pace continued, apologizing to fans and lamenting that he won’t be able to continue on the DWTS tour. “It breaks my heart because it means that I won’t be coming on tour. I won’t be able to see you and meet you and perform for you which is something I was really looking forward to. And so I just wanted you to know from me. Hopefully I can make it up to you and come to your city in a different capacity soon. But I am so sorry and I hope to meet you.”
The Fuller House star and pro dance partner Cheryl Burke were booted from the reality competition during the semi-finals, much to the surprise of viewers and even longtime judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Len Goodman.
“I just walked in the door from the semi-finals of Dancing With the Stars, and I have to say, I’m very disappointed with the outcome,” Inaba said in a video shared to social media the night of Di Pace and Burke’s elimination. “Juan Pablo and Cheryl should be in the finale next week. You guys need to vote please.”
“…How do you go home in the semi-finals when you’ve been the highest scorer and you just got a perfect 60?” she continued in a different video later.
“Listen, I know the American people would like fair play, but mostly we like justice. And there’s no justice here,” Goodman said at the end of the semifinals as the audience booed.
Di Pace told Entertainment Tonight that he, too, thought he deserved to go to the finals. “I mean, you know, we wanted to go to the finals. At least the finals. I think we did [deserve to go to the finals],” he said.
At the end of the year, Di Pace shared a heartfelt message to Burke. “I can’t finish the year without remembering the amazing times I’ve had with my super partner [Cheryl Burke] on [Dancing With The Stars] – from the incredible Samba, to hamming it up with Gaston, to the craziest Egyptian Jive, to our Salsa suavecita and our final Tango,” Di Pace wrote. “I’m so proud of having left a clear mark on a brilliant show. Loved every second of it, even the elimination, I wouldn’t change a thing!”
Dancing With the Stars: Live features pro dancers from the show as well as a few fan-favorite stars. The tour has been going strong since before the holidays; it continues Tuesday in Minneapolis and travels around the country until it finishes up in Thousand Oaks, California on March 9.
The tour’s website still shows Di Pace as listed as a guest performer for the duration of the tour starting Thursday in Grand Prairie, Texas.
